The end of SOTU dating?

All that pomp and circumstance about bipartisan dates to the State of the Union? That’s so 2011.

It’s been all the rage for lawmakers in opposing parties to pair up as dates to the annual address in recent years. But while organizers don’t have an official tally of participants this year, they concede that the across-the-aisle love among lawmakers appears to be dying down a bit.

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Awkward SOTU moments

One official from Third Way, the center-left think tank that first came up with the idea three years ago, acknowledged earlier Tuesday that participation is “pretty significantly down this year,” judged on anecdotal evidence.

The quasi-tradition began with the State of the Union address in 2011 — an effort to turn down the partisan temperature in the Capitol after the near-fatal shooting of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

Back then, lawmakers proudly touted their strange-bedfellow pairings through gushy tweets, lovey-dovey news releases and joint appearances on national TV. CNN aired a segment that showed off the bipartisan pairs with a heart graphic in between them. And the effort gave way to unusual — and sometimes, quite bizarre — couplings, such as Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and then-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.).

And like high school, there was some drama, too — like when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) turned down an invite from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), because she already had a date.

Some folks are still scouring across the aisle for their seatmates, but aren’t making a big show of it. For example, bipartisan duos such as Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) quietly made their date-night announcements on Twitter.

One exception is the bipartisan pair of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.). They proudly announced in a statement Tuesday that they would sit together on Tuesday night “not only as best friends, but as a Democrat and a Republican who are working together on behalf of our nation.”

“We just wanted to be a voice and encourage people to at least show that modicum of bipartisan support by socially interacting with one another,” said Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.).

Salmon, along with Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.), Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), wrote to congressional leaders, adding: “I don’t know how many members are actually going to sit together.”

Barber, who now holds Giffords’s old seat, was a little bit more optimistic.

“I’ve been talking with a number of members on both sides of the aisle, and whoever I’ve spoken with plans to be seated next to a member of the opposite party,” he said. “I think we’re going to be surprised.”